General personality traits

By Our Special Correspondent

These include:

· Appearance

· Speech, mannerisms and gesticulation

· Mental alertness

· Consistency of thought and ideas

· Type of approach (positive/negative)

· Leadership qualities, etc.

Knowledge and intelligence

These include knowledge of the candidate’s subject of specialization, applicability of his subject in day-to-day life, knowledge about other general subjects, I.Q. and common sense.

There is no reason to panic if one is lacking in one or more of these qualities. All these can be suitably developed in a step-by-step manner and one can improve one’s personality to a great extent. However, there is no short-term course to train you for the interview. You have to develop the required qualities by a conscious effort. We are not out rightly contradicting Darwinists like Herbert Spencer and Francis Calton, who advocated that intelligence and personality are inherited qualities. Darwinists believe that only intelligent parents will have intelligent children and, therefore, children coming from average families cannot be successful in this competitive world because they have not inherited intelligence and personality from their parents. However, being convinced by Alfred Binets and Spearman, the famous psychologists who believed in environmental development of intelligence and human personality, we can outline some measures to improve one’s personality. We do not hold that personality is a product of heredity; we believe it can be developed by proper “training”, just like any other skill. By following the suggestions given in the following chapters, one can easily overcome one’s shortcomings and improve one’s personality. Towards this end, let us begin with defining personality.

In general parlance, personality depicts the outward appearance of a person. When we see a well-dressed man, the general remark we often hear is, “He has a good personality.” This is a very superficial and incomplete meaning of the word” personality”. Personality is not confined to possessing a well-built physique or wearing fine clothes. There is a lot more to personality than merely possessing physical attributes such as good looks, a handsome appearance and a good physique.

Prof. G.W. Allport defined the term personality as having the following qualities: “Pattern of habits, attitudes, traits which determine one’s adjustment to one’s environments.”

From a sociological point of view, which is assumed in all interviews to test the personality of candidates for recruitment, Robert E. Park and Earnest W. Burgess have defined personality as “the sum and organization of those traits which determine the role of an individual in a group”. To sum up, we can say that “personality” includes not only the physical attributes but also psychological traits such as attitudes, adaptability, motivation, perseverance, response to problems, etc. personality is, therefore, the total impression of one’s mental, physical and intellectual make-up on a panel of interviewers or another human being, as the case may be. It is, however, influenced by the following factors:

· General physique

· Heredity

· General appearance

· Culture

· Experience

· Education and training

The first two factors are not controllable and you cannot improve upon them. However, the last four factors are controllable ones and can be improved upon to project an above-average personality. Remember, the maxim of all educationists – “We learn by doing” – is very true as far as the development of personality is concerned.

How does one improve the controllable factors of your personality? How does one set about achieving an extraordinary and above-average personality? How does one minimize one’s weaknesses and maximize one’s strengths? These are some of the questions that have been answered in the following sections of this book along with illustrations, useful hints and suggestions.